Katherine Frances's Blog, page 361
June 7, 2015
"His eyes were like the ocean
Calm, until the storm came in.
I was drawn to the middle, like a siren..."
Calm, until the storm came in.
I was drawn to the middle, like a siren was calling
But really I was falling.
The waves soon began to grow and drown me
Now I’m sinking in the blue iris of the sea.”
- rockythetimelord (via wnq-writers)
June 6, 2015
"Just lie down with me. You don’t have to pretend to love me. You don’t have to pretend to care. Just..."
- foodoverscars (via wnq-writers)
This is the belated (because my program ate the video last...
This is the belated (because my program ate the video last week, sorry guys) video in which I talk all about Villains! In part one I cover villains who are not likable, while in the second part I’ll talk about villains who are. I’m hoping these videos will help give some inspiration for writers, and also help fill in the gaps of your understanding about villains you might have already started creating.
Reblog if Black Lives Matter to you
Where are those woke white people at!?
The amount of notes this doesn’t have bothers me…
June 5, 2015
WWC Feedback Services are Open for Business
Colorful Critiques: Writing With Color Feedback Services!
You wanted it, you’ve asked for it, and now you’ve got it.
Colorful Critiques, the Writing With Color Feedback Service for all your diversity needs! Trouble with tropes? Succumbing to stereotypes? Let us help you with the POC critique and feedback services!
Here’s the details:
1K-5K word submission
1 paragraph summary of the story or scene.
Genre
Specific Questions or concerns
Be willing to have your work and comments posted publicly on the site; we will not critique privately. If that’s what you want, find a beta reader.
Proper trigger warnings (TW: Rape, Abuse, Slurs etc…)
Rating:
Race/Ethnic Group: PoC as main characters and/or secondary characters only, must be clearly defined (however you want to do this, through skin color and/or features, or just clearly stated, or if this is a concern of yours, address in the specific concerns part).
No line critiques for grammar unless it’s a dialect or language, (i.e. if you use AAVE, we’ll critique the structure; none of this “gizoogle” and “hizouse” stuff)
Please do not ask us when you will receive a critique or when we will read your submission, we are busy people with lives and jobs.
We will only post the problem areas of your work to maintain the integrity of your story (but we need at least 1K words to get a full perspective).
If you are adding commentary, constructive criticism only. (you will be deleted and blocked from this site if you have posted flames and/or hateful comments).
If you are being critiqued, do not take anything personally. Take this experience as a lesson learned and grow as a writer.
This would be the format of the submission:
Title:
Word Count:
Summary:
Specific Concerns:
Triggers:
Rating:
Race/Ethnic group:
Submit your piece for critique here.Check out the Colorful Critiques here.
How to Write Women of Color and Men of Color if you are White.
A colleague of mine was talking to me recently about her misgivings about her capabilities regarding writing Women of Color. She wanted very badly to include several WOC characters in her sci-fantasy series, but she had some concerns about correct portrayal and writing them in a way that wouldn’t instantly piss people off. I told her I would write something about it that might help. So, here we have it: How to write POC without pissing everyone off and doing a horrible job.
In general, it comes down to three things. Research, Persistence and Consideration. Also. for the point of this essay, I am going to use Black women, Native Women and Mixed Race women as they each represent different individual (yet very important) racial struggles that need consideration.
1. Research is by far the most important thing. EVER. For this example, I am going to use Black women.
It is important to start by trying your hardest to forget anything you think you know about Black women and Black female identity. As a white person, anything you would know about them you probably learned from media that is not controlled by or monitored by black women themselves. Meaning that it is likely not a good representation of black women at all. Or maybe you just have a Black friend.
Which you should consider in the same way you would a control group for a science experiment.
One or two subjects would not provide conclusive evidence in regards to any hypothesis. Having one or two or even five black friends can’t help you with understanding the complex history of black discourse….
In order to start from scratch, I would first spend some time reading literature written by Black women for Black women. Learning the way Black women have discourse among each other is the first step to understanding their perspective AND emulating their voice. Literature is the genre of media where POC have the most liberty (unlike film) to discuss certain topics or parts of their identity.
Then, I would delve into “complaints”. There are thousands upon thousands of articles where Black women complain about their portrayal in media. These complaints are both valid and often eloquently expressed. It is important for you to know, what things Black women (WOC) are already so fucking tired of seeing in regards to incorrect or offensive portrayals of themselves. Not only will it help you avoid making the same mistakes as white writers before you (an example of this: Arthur Golden and the hot mess that is Memoirs of a Geisha), But it will also get you upset about certain ways Black women (POC women in general) are portrayed, and make you want to write them better. This can improve your writing in that not only will you avoid being offensive, but you now have the chance to be progressive and kick stereotypes out the window!
Finally, I would take some time to follow some tumblr blogs that are run by the group you’re trying to write. This part of the research can really help because you’ll get a first hand, contemporary dialogue about issues within the specific POC community. Which leads me to my second topic…
